Breaking the Rules

The Center serves as a laboratory for testing out new ideas that go beyond our regular roster of grants and programs. Some of these initiatives are one-time projects; others go on to become continuing programs at the Center or the broader College. These are among the wide variety of programs and events the Center supports each year.

As part of a pilot program devised by Gus Stadler (English), the Center’s long-running American Studies Working Group brought anthropologist Deborah A. Thomas (University of Pennsylvania) to lead a seminar discussion on a book-in-progress by Juli Grigsby (Anthropology); Thomas also screened her film Four Days in May: Kingston 2020 for the campus community. Supported by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Hurford Center will host a postdoctoral fellow for two years in the Medical Humanities. This fellowship brings a scholar from a historically underrepresented group to the College in order to transition into a tenuretrack, assistant professor in Health Studies. This is a new and possibly transformative approach to diversify the Haverford faculty.

SOPRANO STACEY ADRIAN SINGS IN LOST IN THE WOODS, A MINI-OPERA BY CHRISTOPHER SHULTIS, ACCOMPANIED BY THE AKROS PERCUSSION COLLECTIVE WITH SET DESIGN BY PROFESSOR HEE SOOK KIM (FINE ARTS). PHOTO: CLAIRE BLOOD-CHENEY ’20

INSTALLATION SHOT OF YOU CAN’T BUY THIS ALTAR BY MALA SHARMA BMC ’19, PART OF THE VISUAL STUDIES CAPSTONE EXHIBITION BLACK ART + POLITICS IN THE UPPER VCAM CREATE SPACE. PHOTO: PATRICK MONTERO

A leader in the intersex movement’s fight for bodily autonomy and justice, intersex activist, educator, and filmmaker Pidgeon Pagonis visited campus to give a keynote on their work. This event was co-sponsored with the Women*s Center’s, ALAS, BSL, Havernut, AFFIRM, the CPGC, and the Presidential Diversity Fund.

The Center staged a performance of Lost in the Woods (2013-2017), a one-act percussion opera by Christopher Shultis based on civil disobedience and nature texts by Henry David Thoreau. Written for soprano Stacey Mastrian in collaboration with the Akros Percussion Collective, the performance featured video and stage design by faculty member Hee Sook Kim (Fine Arts).